This disclosure relates to cold aisle containment. More particularly, automated panels are provided for use as components in a cold aisle containment system.
Cold aisle containment involves physical barriers erected to contain a supply of chilled air in proximity to intake ports of information technology (IT) equipment (e.g., servers, storage devices) and/or other electronic equipment. By containing the chilled air, the air is less likely to bypass the equipment and more likely to enter the equipment and provide the desired cooling effect.
Some cold aisle containment systems require extensive modification to the data center and/or other space surrounding the location of the IT equipment. For example, such a system may involve permanently erected doors, walls, and/or roofs to surround a cold aisle, in which case light, fire suppression, uninterruptible power, and/or other services must be introduced to the system because the data center's normal services cannot penetrate the containment. In an environment in which only a limited number of cold aisles are to be contained (e.g., for one organization's IT equipment installed in a data center that serves or supports multiple organizations), the necessary modifications may not be feasible or may be cost-prohibitive.
Some other cold aisle containment systems avoid the need to modify some data center services (e.g., fire suppression) by employing panels (e.g., roof panels) that automatically detach and fall to the floor. While this feature may open the cold aisle to fire suppression, light, and/or other services, falling panels are not beneficial to the health of anyone or anything (e.g., equipment, cables) located in the cold aisle when they fall. In addition, the panels must be replaced after each use (i.e., after they are detached), thereby requiring storage of spare panels and/or causing a lack of containment after usage and until replacements are installed.